a r t i s t : Steve Lacy - Maarten Altena
t i t l e : High, Low and Order
d a t e : 1990
l a b e l : hatArt
g e n r e : Jazz
r l s. d a t e : Jun/2006
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 58,1 MB
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Reissue of Claxon 79.3 (LP) (1979)
Steve Lacy soprano saxophone
Maarten Altena bass
Recorded on December 9 and 10, 1978 at the Shaffy Theater,
Amsterdam. Engineers: Nico Bes & Dick Lucas. CD-mastered by
Peter Pfister.
Cover painting: Aki Kuroda. Cover art: Walter Bosshardt.
Producer: Maarten Altena (for Claxton Records).
This 1978 set of recordings over two days at an Amsterdam
theater reveals that two musicians who are disciplined enough
can also be free enough to improvise completely without regard
for structural convention or the force placed upon improvisers
from within their own circle to make their music sound
"spontaneously composed." In other words, these two cats make
some cool-assed noise and could care less if the serious art
types dig it or not. Insecurity is not an issue for this pair.
These 11 improvisations have titles, but they are of
absolutely no consequence and were probably added when the
recordings were about to be issued. High, Low and Order is the
sound of two musicians enjoying each other. Period. One leads
with an idea, and the other follows for as long as it can be
sustained, talking in tandem until another idea -- or even
something funny -- replaces it. There is great relaxation in
this pairing. Explorations of tone and timbre take place
naturally and sonic development lopes along seeking nothing
but the full expression of an immediate possibility. Steve
Lacy, for his part, has never sounded so airborne. There is a
spring-like feeling in his playing here, full of humor and
grace, and Maarten Altena uses his bow as much as his fingers,
trying to match polytones with Lacy, creasing the sonic fold
and straightening it as phrases from jazz, blues, classical
music, and even TV commercials fly back and forth in the midst
of erecting some harmonic semblance of disorder. High, Low and
Order is an example of the poetry Lacy loves so much,
articulated line by line with only the extension of his breath
to break the field into sections. Altena creates another
stanza and they're off again. This is party music for new
music heads. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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01-High [02:36]
02-Off-Hand [04:30]
03-Post [05:47]
04-Low [04:05]
05-Blush [02:25]
06-Inconscient Shuffle [06:54]
07-Notice [03:35]
08-Order [02:02]
09-Hop [03:10]
10-Breeze [03:54]
11-Kiss [02:22]
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41:20 min